"There is only one power that determines the course of history . . . the power of ideas." — Ayn Rand

Friday, February 12, 2016

Rubio is Right. Obama “knows exactly what he's doing."

In a recent GOP debate, Marco Rubio called it “fiction” to believe that “Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing.” This is in response to charges that Rubio is too inexperience to be president, and would only be a Republican Barack Obama. Obama, too, faced charges of “inexperience.”

The standard GOP line, in essence, is that Obama messed up the country because of incompetence stemming from lack of experience. The lead pitbull against Rubio was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Christie's attack on the Florida senator in the debate Saturday night has to rank among the most effective hit jobs in recent political history.

After that performance, Rubio has nowhere to go but back to Florida.

He's done. Cooked. Finished.

Mulshine says "Rubio's appearances are heavily scripted. He often stumbles and bumbles whenever he has to address a question he hasn't heard before. Christie pounded that point home." He goes on to quote Christie, who ridicules Rubio as "the boy in the bubble" and asserts "This election cannot be handed to a guy who memorizes a good 60-second answer and can read a Teleprompter better than anyone." Mulshine continues:

Rubio fell right into the trap. The TV clips that will finish off his candidacy show him repeating three times his stage-managed attack on President Obama.

That was his line about "this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing" – a fiction that certainly didn't come up in the questions he was asked.

Each time Rubio followed that robotically with the line "He knows exactly what he's doing."

I don’t think Rubio is finished by a long shot. In fact, I think many people agree with the substance of Rubio’s assessment of Obama, and will look past his bumbling and Christie’s slander.

I’m not sure how exactly Rubio means it. But, scripted or not, I think Rubio is absolutely correct on the broader point. Obama came into office with little experience but a solid collectivist ideology. And, on the basis of that ideology, Obama has had significant success at “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” as he promised in 2008.

Obama’s political agenda, including Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare, and his climate change agenda—including the assault on the coal industry—have pushed the country a long way toward statism and away from liberty. But that agenda is really a continuation of the statist trend of the past hundred years, and particularly of the past 15 years.

The worst damage was his legitimization of moocherism. This he has largely accomplished through his anti-economic inequality campaign, which is built on the premise that no one is responsible for his economic status. The wealth of the nation is not the product of individual ability and initiative operating in the free market, and belonging to those who earned it. Wealth is some collective “pie” created by this mysterious entity called “society.” If the next guy has more wealth or earnings than you, it’s because that guy took more than his “fair share” of society’s pie by cheating you. Nobody actually builds anything (“you didn’t build that”). “Success” is a matter of luck or cheating, not individual productiveness. There is no such thing as achievement. There’s only “privilege.”

This egalitarian view of wealth production was not invented by Obama. But he has shown to be a great salesman for it. Consequently, he has severely undermined a lot of Americans’ respect for individual achievement. In doing so, it has given legitimization to the entitlement mentality. To the extent people accept it—and too many people do—Obama has paved the way for an accelerated descent into socialism.

Experience is overblown. An “inexperienced” president can always surround himself with qualified people to guide him in implementing his policies. Much more important in a president is his philosophy and vision for where he wants to take the country. Obama came into office with a vision, and largely accomplished it. Yes, Obama “knows exactly what he's doing."

1 comment:

Steve D
said...

'Each time Rubio followed that robotically with the line "He knows exactly what he's doing."'

Perhaps because he figured if he repeated it enough times it would sink into their thick heads. Not likely and it wasn't great tactics but I agree with his statement. Of course Obama knows exactly what he's doing. How could anyone think otherwise? If he was incompetent he’d do the right thing now and then by sheer chance. But he consistently does the wrong thing. Obama is turning his ideology into practice in a very deliberate matter, compared to previous presidents who have done so more or less unconsciously.

Rubio has been consistent with his statements that Obama knows what he’s doing. He’s stated it over an over during his campaign. Cruz has touched on it occasionally. No one else has even mentioned it.

Also, I agree with you about experience wrt politics. In some senses it might even be a negative, if the president gets to the point where he thinks he’s so competent and experienced he doesn’t have to listen to or hire good advisors.

About Me

Greetings and welcome to my blog. My name is Michael A. (Mike) LaFerrara. I sometimes use the pen or "screen" name "Mike Zemack" or "Zemack" in online activism, such as posted comments on articles. “Zemack” stands for the first letters of the names of my six grandchildren. I was born in 1949 in New Jersey, U.S.A., where I retired from a career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries, and still reside with my wife of 45 years. The purpose of my blog is the discussion of a wide range of topics relating to human events from the perspective of Objectivism, the philosophy of reason, rational self-interest, and Americanism originated by Ayn Rand.

As Rand observed: “The professional intellectual is the field agent of the army whose commander-in-chief is the philosopher.” I am certainly not the philosopher. But neither am I a field agent, or general. I am a foot soldier in that Objectivist army that fights for an individualist society in which every person can live in dignified sovereignty, by his own reasoned judgment, for his own sake, in that state of peaceful coexistence with his fellow man that only capitalist political and economic freedom can provide. While I am a fully committed Objectivist, my opinions are based on my own understanding of Objectivism, and should not be taken as definitive “Objectivist positions.” For the full story of my journey toward Objectivism, see my Introduction.

One final introductory note: I strongly recommend Philosophy, Who Needs it, which highlights the inescapable importance of philosophy in every individual's life. I can be reached at mal.atlas@comcast.net. Thanks, Mike LaFerrara.

Recommended Essays/Videos

Quotes I Like

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.—Francisco d'Anconia

I love getting older...I get to grow up and learn things. Madalyn, 5 years old, Montesorri student, and my grand-daughter

The best thing one can do for the poor is to not become one of them. Author Unknown

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Francis Bacon

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Ronald Reagan

Thinking is hard work. If it weren't, more people would do it. Henry Ford

Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. Ayn Rand